Tech Innovations at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018

This year, the Winter Olympics is being hosted by South Korea and as a booming tech hub, the host country is showing everyone world class tech innovations. A sneak peak? Okay, here it goes: you can’t speak and understand Korean? No worries as robots (yes, I said robots) are everywhere to guide you in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 PyeongChang Edition

The South Korean tech giant is one of the main partners of the event. To officially celebrate the PyeongChang 2018, Samsung will give more than 4,000 personalized Galaxy Note8 devices to athletes and IOC staff.

The Galaxy Note8 PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition will have a shiny white back panel with a golden five-ring Olympic logo. It will come with a golden finish on the phone’s rim, buttons, and other parts of the S-pen.

To really feel the Winter Olympics hype, the limited edition will be pre-loaded with PyeongChang 2018 themed wallpapers and apps “to help cultivate the utmost Olympic Games experience”. The phones will be coupled with Olympics cases as well.

Testing of 5G Network

photo courtesy of Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The 5G network is expected to revolutionize the broadcasting industry as it is capable of delivering massive data needed for VR or hologram services,” local Korean website Yonhap News wrote in January.

KT who is in partnership with Intel and with support from the South Korean government, uses this global event to test out the massive 5G network before the official rollout this coming 2021.

Airport robot guides

Photo courtesy of LG Newsroom

Upon arriving at Seoul’s Incheon Airport, you’ll see robots taking passengers to their respective gates and even offer flight information as well. Thanks to LG’s voice recognition platform, the airport guide robots can understand and speak in multiple languages and can also scan your boarding pass for you.

Virtual reality broadcasting

Intel announced its partnership with the Olympic Broadcast Services last January. And its mission is to capture 30 Olympic events in virtual reality. Although it actually debuted in Olympics in Rio last 2016, it was only used during the opening ceremony. This year, the virtual reality viewing is available from the opening down to the closing ceremony.

Take note that aside from the games itself, South Korea’s top boy group, EXO will be performing at the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Can you imagine how epic the viewing experience will be? The global games + South Korea’s Kings of KPOP to bring a powerful performance will be available both live and in virtual reality.

Instantaneous translation

photo courtesy of Hancom

GenieTalk, a voice-recognition instant translation app that will be able to translate Korean into 29 languages is heavily used now during the Winter Olympics.

“It’s a super popular feature – it has fun Olympic frame options. The robot also plays multiple songs and dances,” a company representative told CNBC.

The AI machine learns from hearing thousands of examples and teaches themselves to improve over time. These AI robots can be seen roaming around the event venues as well.

AR-enabled app to guide viewers to their seats

Attendees of the Winter Olympics can access the Game’s official app to guide them in both indoor and outdoor event venues using their smartphone cameras. The application will help attendees locate their seats.

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